For Your Consideration: Jonathan Bailey in denim short shorts!!!
With final voting open for the 2024 Emmy Awards, the star’s pulling out the big guns—or should we say: big thighs—in support of his Best Supporting Actor nominated-work in Fellow Travelers.
Over the past week, Bailey and his co-star Matt Bomer have been on a press blitz, promoting their acclaimed Showtime series which follows the emotional romance between two gay men from the ’50s to the ’80s, and this latest campaign stop is a little peek behind the fitting room curtain that’s driving the internet wild.
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Here, bask in the beauty, and then take a minute to catch your breath (and clean up any drool) before you continue reading:
Part of what was so amazing about Fellow Travelers was getting to see how gay men like Bailey’s Tim “Skippy” Laughlin adapted to the evolving world around them, starting out as closeted, Catholic pencil-pusher in Washington D.C. and maturing into a loud and proud gay activist.
Of course, Tim’s style changed over the decades, too, and these closer looks at a few of Bailey’s costume fittings are certainly making us nostalgic for something.
We’re particularly fond of Skippy’s ’70s threads—complete with calf-bearing shorts and some sensible sandals—that look ready to romp around Fire Island.
Please, check on your friends today, they’re likely having trouble forming sentences after seeing these behind-the-scenes photos.
It would appear the photographs came from a video post on Bailey’s Instagram, which featured the actor and his Fellow Travelers co-stars Bomer, Jelani Alladin, and Noah J. Ricketts dancing through life.
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Set to the tune of Arthur Russell’s “Love Is Overtaking Me” (which also soundtracked the series’ final moments), the clip is pure joy, threading together more photos and videos from set, in addition to some delightful scenes of the guys promoting the show.
It’s clear Team Fellow Travelers just enjoys one another’s company, and it’s adorable. Can this press tour last forever?
But that’s not all. Other highlights of the Fellow Travelers FYC campaign include Bailey and Bomer’s stop by 92NY in New York City, where they chatted with Queerty fave Tommy DiDario all about what the series has meant to them, spilling some tea from the set in the process.
Turns out they spilled some milk, too: In tribute to the infamous “shut up and drink your milk” quote—which inspired Bailey’s Loewe t-shirt campaign in support of The Shameless Fund—DiDario had the guys cap the night off with an oat milk toast. Brilliant!
And then we have to mention when Bailey brought his never-ending charm offensive to Late Night With Seth Meyers last Friday to talk about the upcoming Emmys and the real-life inspirations for Fellow Travelers.
Of course, Meyers—like so many of us—just wanted to ask the actor about his many, man sex scenes filmed for the show, which he reminds the audience serve a very important purpose:
“There are these beautiful sex scenes throughout,” Bailey shared, “which are so important because, when you look at the sort of power and the oppression of these gay men, when we come together we explore how the blossoming nature of the landscape where they live, how that effects their sex lives, but also how they come together. And it’s beautiful!”
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But none of that could’ve happened without a little help from Bailey’s “stunt doubles,” a.k.a. his prosthetic penises. And Seth Meyers, ally that he is, even brought photographic proof of them to the show (though things were sadly pixelated for at-home audiences):
“When you’re approaching character, you think emotionally, cerebrally, and then you have to make a really big choice,” Bailey said, referring to the sampling of prosthetics at his disposal.
“Is that what you did?,” Meyers asked. “You made the big choice?”
Bailey, modest as ever, had other things on the mind: “No, no, no. I think it’s only fair: I believe in representation for everyone.”
By the time Meyers whips out photos of Bailey’s modesty thong—featuring a hole for the prosthetic and some googly eyes for comedic effect—the actor is so flustered he can barely contain himself. And, honestly, we can’t contain ourselves either while watching, this man is just too charming.
All of that leaves us with one question: Was Bailey rocking the prosthetic underneath the short-shorts in those costume fitting shots? Or is he just filling things out nicely himself?
Anyway, this Fellow Travelers Emmys campaign has been a total gift. We’ll be watching along with the ceremony on September 15, holding out hope that we get to see Bailey or Bomer give what would surely be a fantastic acceptance speech on primetime TV!
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Jelani Alladin & Noah J. Ricketts reflect on the journey of ‘Fellow Travelers’
It’s been an incredible trip, but now ‘Fellow Travelers’ has reached its final destination. In adapting Thomas Mallon’s 2017 novel of the same name, the acclaimed Showtime drama expanded the narrative’s scope, checking in on the central romance between Hawk Fuller (Matt Bomer) and Tim Laughlin (Jonathan Bailey) at different moments in history, while also […]
UserSimon
“All of that leaves us with one question: Was Bailey rocking the prosthetic underneath the short-shorts in those costume fitting shots?”
This was my question too because we didn’t see his (fake) penis in the series. Then they showed a clip of Tim and Hawk in bed and he was wearing his tighty whities. And it looked substantial underneath. I guess they knew we would be looking.